


Somebody Save Me

by calumTraveler



Category: Tru Calling, Worm - Wildbow
Genre: And Rachel, Gen, Madison's there to undo it., Taylor dies, Time Travel, but don't worry, somebody help me, sort of, welp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 21:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5717680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calumTraveler/pseuds/calumTraveler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two words can change everything... and they repeat again and again and again...</p><p>"Save Me."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Somebody Save Me

What had we done?  
  
Sophia, Emma, and I.... what had we done?  
  
Bullying Taylor like we had, what had we done? Why had it come to this? Why had it come to the coroner pulling her body out of the locker and putting into a body bag??  
  
Next to me, Sophia's hands clenched tightly enough that I could hear her skin squeaking in protest. "We tell nobody," she began to hiss at both me and Emma. "As far as we're concerned, we never saw her yesterday, or today."  
  
"Will the staff believe it?" Emma asked, also in a whisper.  
  
"It's not the staff you have to worry about," Sophia said. "It's the PRT and I'll make sure they never catch wind of this. What evidence is there even tying us to it? Nobody will know besides us if we all keep our mouths shut."  
  
"That's the problem," I finally managed to say, staring as they began to pull the body bag on wheels towards us. "We'll _know._ "  
  
As the Paramedics and Coroners passed by our group, then, there was motion from the bag.  
  
"Wait-" I cried out, "Did you see that!?"  
  
"See what?" The coroner- I could see her name tag, Dr. S. Asada- asked, pausing everything right infront of me.  
  
"The bag moved!" I started to point at it, "She's--!"  
  
And then it did, indeed, move, jerking upright and arms shooting out of the bag, covered in rotting bugs and other stuff as Taylor's terrified voice cried out towards me:  
  
  
  
"SAVE ME!!"  
  
  
  
And as her hands grabbed my shoulders- I screamed.  
  
I screamed and fell backwards out of my desk chair, landing on my butt right in the middle of class.  
  
Everyone stared at me for a moment, the teacher, the students... but most importantly: Taylor Hebert.  
  
She just sat there, looking at me in confusion as I started screaming once more. "DEAD! YOU'RE!---!" I gave up on trying to form any kind of sentence, instead, I just started screaming incoherently.  
  
Admittedly, there was a bit of swearing involved. That... didn't do so good for my cute-kid rep. But honestly, I didn't care. It was the furthest thing from my mind at that moment. I'd just seen Taylor's dead body being dragged out of the locker and now she was alive, sitting in class and-- and--- And-----  
  
What just happened??  
  
  
Needless to say, I was escorted to the nurses office rather quickly by an irate Emma.  
  
  
"What the hell was that about?" Emma asked as she took me through the halls. "You doze off in the middle of class and start screaming like a banshee!? And yelling death threats at Taylor? What the hell, Madison??"  
  
I repeated words, trying to explain. Unfortunately, I was still rather hysterical at that point. Emma just looked more confused as she tried to piece my ramblings together.  
  
"What about the locker?? Taylor _Died?_ What?" Emma looked completely confused, and honestly, that was how I'd felt in that moment. "Seriously, Mads, did you stay up watching horror movies last night, or something?"  
  
I wish that was all it was.  
  
I ended up being sedated by the nurse when I'd refused to calm down. Nobody was listening- or rather, I couldn't speak coherently enough to make people take me seriously.  
  
It got worse as the drugs went into my system, and then... I blacked out.  
  
\--  
  
I came to sometime later, lying in a bed in the school infirmary. The sun was setting through one of the windows.  
  
I nearly shot upright in dismay- how long had I been out??  
  
"Oh, you're awake," The nurse began, "I hope you're feeling better, Miss Clements."  
  
"What day is it?" I asked- trying to keep from panicking. I did NOT need them sedating me AGAIN.  
  
"Day?" The nurse frowns. "if you've had that bad of a break to forget what day it is then maybe I should call the-"  
  
"What day?" I asked- more firmly.  
  
"It's the first day back from winter break, Miss Cle-" I cut her off with a question of time. "It's just a little before last bell. Most everyone is heading home soon."  
  
  
"Okay- thank you, goodbye!" And with that, I bolted from the bed and ran out into the hallways. Damn, what a lucky break that they didn't have me tied down. Don't they usually do that on TV?  
  
Maybe Winslow's just shitty enough that the school board doesn't have money for infirmary restraints?  
  
Regardless- if Emma and Sophia went through with the prank anyways without my disruption causing them to postpone it.... Taylor should have only been in the locker for--??  
  
Damn- what time did Sophia even shove her in there at? I didn't know! I didn't even know how long Taylor had been in there before she'd died!  
  
If this was some Random Act of God testing me to make up for all the bullying I'd done- you'd think that maybe I could have gotten a little more information first!?  
  
I got to Taylor's locker just in the nick of time, however. I got a chance to see Taylor opening the locker, and then puking from the smell.  
  
I saw Sophia sneaking up from behind- wait, where did she even come from!? She wasn't there a- Lunging to Push NEVERMIND THAT NOW!!  
  
  
  
"STOP!" I yelled out, and lunged at Sophia in return.  
  
  
  
"What the f-?" Sophia had no idea what was happening when I threw myself into her.  
  
She'd been in mid lunge to shove Taylor into the locker, so I'd caught her off balance- it was just enough to send the both of us sprawling to the ground.  
  
"Madison!?" Sophia cried out in anger- "What the hell are you doi-?!" I Punched her in the face. With my face.  
  
  
  
OW.  
  
  
  
What the hell was I doing??  
  
Taylor, by now, had turned to look at us in surprise, horror, and confusion, probably. I yelled at her to run. "GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!" To her credit, she ran.  
  
Good girl, Tayl-ERK.  
  
The next thing I knew, Sophia had me flipped onto the ground next to the open, trash filled locker, and was pinning me with a hand to my throat.  
  
"Madison-" Sophia began, "I don't know what the hell's gotten into you today but it's screwed up the best prank ever!"  
  
"We- killed her--!" I managed to choke out. Yeah, she was gripping pretty tightly now. Owwww....  
  
"What the hell are you talking about!?" Sophia looked at me like I was crazy. "She's not DEAD! For cryin' out loud you just stopped me from shoving her into that locker in the first place and--!"  
  
"MISS HESS! LET GO OF MISS CLEMENTS RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"  
  
And then Sophia let go, turning up to look in horror at.... I looked, and saw Mister G and the School Nurse standing with a concerned loking Taylor.  
  
It'd been the nurse who'd shouted just now- she looked absolutely furious, although if it was at me or Sophia, I couldn't tell.  
  
"It's not what it looks like!" Sophia began to cover.  
  
"Really?" The Nurse asked. "Because it looked to me like you were trying to choke a fellow student who ran out of the infirmary in an attempt to stop you from locking another student in her own locker that-" She looked at the locker, and was absolutely horrified, "WHAT did you do to Miss Hebert's Locker!?!"  
  
"They stuffed it with stuff..." I managed to say with a half-crushed throat. Ow, that really, really hurts and I think I'm just going to pass out now...  
  
\--  
  
When I woke up again, this time I really WAS restrained to the infirmary bed. This time with actual handcuffs. _Oooh_. Did I just get arrested?  
  
"Miss Clements?" Asked a voice from above me and--- Oh damn, that's Armsmaster! What the hell is Armsmaster doing here!?  
  
"Um... yeah?" was all I managed with a dry throat. Ow, still hurts. How tight coukd Sophia even choke me with one hand?  
  
"Here," He offered a cup of water to me, and I took it with my free hand- the left one, because the right thing got my right hand chained to a bed-rail.  
  
"Thanks," I said after drinking the whole thing. "Much better now."  
  
"Has Miss Hess ever told you about her... extra curricular activities?" Armsmaster asked.  
  
"Umm..." I thought on it for a moment. Wait- Does that have something to do with how she appeared out of nowhere at the last second? "Sophia's a cape," I guessed, but it didn't really sound like that to Armsmaster, I suppose.  
  
"She is, and due to that I have to ask you to sign some papers legally promising that you won't tell anyone," Armsmaster motioned at a stack of papers next to him. "But before that, I have to ask you a similar question."  
  
"What's that?" I asked.  
  
"Are you a Parahuman?"  
  
  
  
....What.  
  
  
  
"I said, are you a Parahuman?" He repeated, because obviously I said that aloud.  
  
"No- I mean, what?" I asked, for sure this time. "What makes you think I'm a _**c-Cape!?**_ " I stuttered, god forgive me I stuttered. It wasn't even intentional.  
  
"Let's see now..." Armsmaster recounted, "you react during the middle of class today as if you're having a psycotic break- during which you make claims that your fellow student was murdered- and after you recover from sedation, your first instinct is to rush to the rescue of a fellow student being accosted by a Parahuman."  
  
That.... "Okay, admittedly that makes a little sense," I mused. "But... I just... I knew what Sophia and Emma were planning."  
  
"Miss Barnes, yes," Armsmaster nodded. "Her father is currently trying to pin the blame on everything on you. Unsuccessfully, I might add. With Miss Hebert's journal, I'm fairly certain that Mister Barnes is going to be disbared for prejury."  
  
"Taylor has a journal?" I couldn't help but to gawk. Damn. If she'd really died and the cops had found THAT, then...!  
  
"Yes," Armsmaster nodded. "Which is why you're in handcuffs at the moment. Technically, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder at the moment, although Miss Hebert has not officialy filed charges yet. I'd imagine your little change of heart has earned a small measure of goodwill." He paused, then said, "Which is why I am asking if you are a Parahuman or not. If you are, you will be given the same deal Miss Hess was offered- and then spat upon- a Probationary Membership with the Wards."  
  
"..." Freaky time shenanigans aside, I really don't get the feeling that I'm a Parahuman. "Isn't there a test you can perform or something?" I'd always heard that Parahumans had an extra part in their brain or something.  
  
"True," Armsmaster nodded, "although it is different with every Parahuman, there are tests to see if a Corona Polentia or Gemma has formed, usually via X-ray."  
  
I said that last part aloud, didn't I?  
  
"Yes, yes you did."  
  
I sighed. "Okay, so... run that test. If I'm not a cape, then what happens to me?"  
  
"If you're not a Parahuman, we'll offer you community service, provided you testify at Miss Hess' trial." Armsmaster then added, "If not, we'll have to let the courts decide."  
  
I closed my eyes as I thought for a moment.  
  
So my choices were Wards or Community service- all depending on if something'd grown in my brain or not?  
  
"Either way- I'll testify even if you send me to prison," I agree. "Sophia and Emma went too far this time."  
  
"I'll be sure to pass those sentiments along to Miss Hebert." And with that, Armsmaster got up and left. "If I may say so, I hope to see you in the Wards. We could always use more precogs on our side of things."  
  
\--  
  
The next day, I'd had both an X-ray and the healer Cape Panacea looking at me.  
  
Both confirmed- I wasn't a parahuman. No extra growths in by brain at all.  
  
So- the question remained- what the hell happened to me?  
  
Taylor chose not to press charges against me- I don't know why, after everything I'd one- and I was quickly sentenced to Community Service. Of all places, my punishment was working at the City Morgue.  
  
I had a feeling that the PRT suspected I had powers even if I'd failed those two tests, and were going to keep an eye on me regardless. I didn't get an Ankle monitor or anything like that- which really made me suspicious.  
  
This felt wrong on so many levels, I couldn't even tell why.  
  
At least, not until I was brought in to meet Dr. Shana Asada, the Coroner and chief medical examiner for the City Morgue.  
  
"So, I hear you had quite an exciting week," Miss Asada said, smiling faintly at me.  
  
"It was nothing," I admitted shyly.  
  
"Preventing me from getting another body on my slab is no easy feat, especially for a girl your age," Dr. Asada said, now smiling rather mysteriously at me. "That tends to get attention in this city. So, I pulled a few strings to get you interning for me."  
  
"I... um..." I scratched at my head in embarrassment. "Thank you?"  
  
"It's not a problem," she replied. "I look forwards to working with you."  
  
\--  
  
The next week was filled with training- mainly, I was to be Dr. Asada's assistant while she performed autopsies on the bodies. I'd also work on managing paperwork whenever there weren't any bodies to process.  
  
My parents weren't happy that I was working in a Morgue, or that I'd ended up there by bullying a girl, but at least I wasn't in there as a body.  
  
During that week, I was on suspension from school, so I had no idea what Taylor's reaction to all of this was. I'd also gotten my computer priveldges revoked at home, so I couldn't check the internet to see what reactions at large were. Given that the PRT were involved, it was entirely likely that nothing would be told to the public anyways.  
  
I hadn't heard anything from Emma, either, not that I expected to. I'd pretty much ruined any friendship we might have had by stopping Sophia's 'prank' at the locker.  
  
And then came that fateful day, late on a Saturday evening, when Dr. Asada was called to a crime scene. She came back with way too many bodies.  
  
"Gang shootout between ABB and E88," Dr. Asada mused as she came in with a load of bodies on carts. "There were a few civilian casualties, so we're dealing with those first while the PRT processes the gang idents."  
  
"Makes sense," I nodded. One of the Empire's Capes had been present during the shootout, although I didn't know which one, so the PRT were on the scene. "Anyone in particular we should start with?"  
  
"Yeah," Dr. Asada said, nodding towards one in particualr. "Personal effects are in the bag next to it."  
  
I went over and began examining that bag of personal effects while Dr. Asada pulled back the body bag's zipper. Inside the bag was broken key ring, and a wallet, stripped of everything save the drivers' license. "Alexander Pond, Age 23..." I frowned, reading the thing. "Looks like he was robbed?"  
  
"Oh?" Dr. Asada asked as she looked over the gunshot wounds to the chest. "Really now?"  
  
"Yeah, wallet's empty of everything except for the driver's license, and his keyring is broken." I looked at it closer, "No, wait, not broken- cut!" Someone had taken a sharp blade and cut the metal ring apart to get to a particular key. "Did the detectives get informed of this?"  
  
"Why would they?" Dr. Asada frowned as she looked closer at a particular bullet wound on the victim's head. "As far as they're concerned he's just another senseless victim to the crime rate."  
  
I looked closer at the Driver's license. "Alexander Pond... Pond..." I frowned. "I know that name from somewhere."  
  
"Look it up on the driver's license database," Dr. Asada got out a pair of tweasers and began digging into the brain. "There's something about this bullet..." She muttered.  
  
And so I went over to the computer and ran a search on the name...  
  
"Alexander Pond- he's a janitor at the PRT Headquarters!" I gasped. How could someone miss this!?  
  
"Damn-!" Dr. Asada swore as she got the bullet out. "I knew this one was off." She motioned me back over. "Take a look at the powder burns." I did such. "The one on the head here is close range- almost point blank compared to the other rounds that hit the body."  
  
"So what happened?" I missed the left hand twitching.  
  
"It looks like someone killed him, then dumped him at the scene of the shootout, and hoped some stray bullets would make it seem like he was a random victim of happenstance." Dr. Asada nodded at that. "And this bullet... it's familiar. I think I've seen something like this before... Maybe back in '09?"  
  
"What happened in '09?" I asked.  
  
"Ah, a similar shooting to tonight," Dr. Asada said. "There was a-"  
  
And then the body of Alexander Pond reached out and grabbed my by the shoulders, pulling me down to lock eyes with his blood shot ones as he whispered- but might as well have shouted-  
  
  
"SAVE ME."  
  
  
\--  
  
Thus, began a repeating pattern of events. Whenever a body had been killed within the last twenty four hours- my days would rewind with two simple words.  
  
  
  
"Save Me."  
  
  
  
And then, I'd wake up the last time I'd actually woken up. Sometimes, I had hours to spare to save the poor soul who had asked for my help- others, I had all day to track down the victim and help them from meeting a terrible fate.  
  
I'd explained to Dr. Asada what had happened almost immediately after my second rewind. I had to ask her what had happened in 2009, with as little as I knew of what would come to be.  
  
I couldn't stop the gang shooting, but then again, none of them asked me for help when they ended up on the slab. But that first time after saving Taylor... Alexander Pond never died that second time, and instead, I'd ended up interfering with the plot of some hired mercenary who had planned on stealing a key from a hapless janitor and breaking into one of the Tinker Labs in the PHQ base.  
  
Once more, I'd been asked if I was a Parahuman. Once more the tests happened...  
  
And once more, I'd failed to show up as a Cape. This, too, would happen every time I'd end up saving someone. I don't know what they were looking for, but they sure weren't finding it.  
  
Dr. Asada explained it to me the next time it happened- "You, Madison, have a gift. It's a rare gift I've only seen once before in my life. My Mother, who worked her hardest as a coroner... and managed to prevent quite a lot of people from getting on her slab." She smiled, fondly, but sadly. "She died in Kyushu, helping as many people as she could. I followed in her footsteps, became a Coroner her in Brockton Bay. But, I never had the gift like she did..." Then, looking me straight in the eyes, she said, "Like you do. It's the same behavior. Reliving the days. It's a heavy burden, but I can see the same spark in your eyes that I saw in my Mother's."  
  
And so the weeks and months wore on, bodies would roll in, and then I would send them back out again, living and breathing without harm.  
  
I'd returned to school, and people started calling me a hero. Not even a Cape, but a good and proper hero. Even Taylor gave me her thanks at one point- and I still can't believe that she would.  
  
As time went on, and I kept saving people, I began to notice a pattern.  
  
Someone was deliberately testing my powers by getting people killed. It was a push here by some random stranger, or a stray comment here by a friend- in the end, people were being pushed towards murder, and I was preventing it as fast as I possibly could.  
  
Some days, there were bodies that refused to sit up and ask me for help. I was fine with that.  
  
Two months after the locker incident- someone tried to kidnap me.  
  
I say tried, because in their haste to take me hostage in broad daylight- I was walking on the boardwalk for crying out loud!- they ended up shooting a security guard.  
  
And as his body slammed down into the ground- his crying eyes met mine and he whispered, "SAVE ME."  
  
  
  
One rewind later, I made sure not to go on the boardwalk that day. Nobody was shot.  
  
Dr. Asada frowned after I retold that story.  
  
"So... someone thinks you're a Thinker... possibly a Pre-cog." She guessed.  
  
"But I'm not!" I insisted. "I'm just being flung back in time every time someone asks me to Save Them!"  
  
"True, but the fact is that while you're not a Parahuman, you're displaying traits of one." She nodded. "Somebody either wants you dead, or wants to see how you tick."  
  
\--  
  
Another month passed, and whether it was through divine intervention, or because nobody had unfinished business... Nobody asked me for help. Not until one unfortunate evening when Lung went on a rampage in the docks, burning half of it to the ground.  
  
It was all hands on deck, then, and I was brought to the scene of the crime, or at least, part of it.  
  
I ended up on part of a search team that found the body of a girl lying cuddled up next to the corpses of three dogs.  
  
"Oh shit," a cop muttered, "Hellhound."  
  
"A cape?" I asked- looking at the body of the girl. She wasn't wearing a mask that I could see, but through the massive slashes to her chest- what had been used here, burning knives? Wait, no, claws. Lung? Lung had killed this girl? Why?  
  
"Yeah, Rachel something," The cop nodded. "Damn, poor thing. Murderer or not, nobody deserves to die like that."  
  
And then, the girl's corpse let out a whimper as she looked up and met my eyes with her own- and she whispered, "SAVE THEM," even as she stroked at her poor, killed dogs. Even in death, she cared more about her dogs than her own life.  
  
And for the first time- I rewound on a wish for a life other than the one who had asked.  
  
It wouldn't be easy, but then again... what else was these days?

**Author's Note:**

> Worm X Tru Calling cross over. Madison is not a Parahuman, but instead is... whatever the main Protag. of Tru Calling was. Been too many years since I've seen the show to remember exactly. I barely remember the rules for it as it was, and I might have some things wrong. So I went with the basics of a 24 hour limit to a rewind, and the "Save Me" bodies suddenly reanimating in creepy ways.
> 
> Idea for the Undersiders save was that Madison would call in an anonymous tip to the PRT about Lung going on a rampage. Coil would likely be impressed, and try even harder to get his hands on Madison. Speaking of Coil, an Idea I had for power interaction is that Madison's first timeline where people die end up being ones that Coil's discarded at some point or another. Timelines where she saves people end up being the ones he chooses. One "save me" moment I'd like to see is Madison saving Dinah after a botched kidnapping attempt ends up with her dead. It'd be amusing to see Coil get mad when one Precog he wants to capture ends up saving the OTHER one he wants to capture.
> 
> Taylor likely would trigger with some alternate power- possibly something timeline related thanks to being saved by Madison's rewind. Otherwise, no idea.
> 
> I'd imagine Madison working over the corpses after the Leviathan Endbringer battle and getting a "Save Me" moment from some cape who was screwed over by Armsmaster's need for glory- or for added oomph, make it a whole room full of cape bodies, Hero and Villain alike. Nothing creepier than a bunch of bodies asking to be saved from one man, chanting, "Save us from him!" or something like that.
> 
> Speaking of Armsie, I don't know if he'd really be called in to talk to Madison like that, but after the showing she put on about predicting things... and afterwards, where she keeps saving people from horrible deaths, I'd imagine he'd take a personal interest in her- especially if the Tinker Lab she stopped from getting robbed was his.
> 
> After that, I can't really say what would happen. Too many butterflies and a lack of a firm understanding of the timeline to be sure, at this point.


End file.
